Pragati Bidkar

Review by Carla Trueheart for Readers' Favorite

As a vegetarian, it’s difficult to plan unique meals and provide something different for my family every day of the week. 30 Days of Daal -- Simple, Healthy Daal Recipes from India, has a remedy for that. Opening with an index of recipes and an introduction that explains the history of daal, the cookbook is an invaluable go-to source for unique Indian meals. Some of the recipes include Simple Indian Daal, Black Masoor Daal with Coconut, Lentil Vegetable Stew, Moong Daal with Yogurt, and an easy to prepare Everyday Daal. While many of the recipe ingredients are on-hand pantry or supermarket items such as cayenne pepper, water, tomato, brown sugar, peanuts, or ginger, some ingredients are most likely found in speciality Indian markets, such as the green moong daal, Asafetida, and red masoor lentils. In case you’re not sure where to find any of these specialty items or want to know more about them, the back of the book has a section that simplifies the process. Here, cookbook author Pragati Bidkar lists the different types of daal, varieties of rice, spices, oils, and ghee.

Overall, 30 Days of Daal has beautiful photographs and unique recipes I’m ready to try, look appetizing, and don’t require too much work. Especially appealing is the Dry Chana Daal with Onions (Chana Daal is a garbanzo bean) and the Lentil Vegetable Stew with potato, pumpkin, and eggplant. I would definitely recommend the book to not only vegetarians looking for unique meal options, but also anyone interested in Indian dishes or experimenting with different flavor profiles and ingredients.… (plus d'informations)

Pragati Bidkar really feeds us well in this much appreciated book on Daal. She give us 30 different recipes for regional Daals, the legume (pulses) soup which defines indian and Pakistani home cooking. Having had the honor to dine with my Indian colleagues I can affirm that her recipes are authentic. In today's world of hustle and bustle the western world could benefit from sitting down to her nutritious and tasty soups. I have made several from her book and look forward to eventually making all 30. These are easy to follow but will require you to visit an Indian food store. You will not likely find your Masalas and hing, or different daals elsewhere. Also while visiting be sure to purchase some rich Indian yoghurt to accompany these dishes.
Health Ayurvedic food is on the menu for all those who use thsi lovely little book. (I would love to have a hard copy for my kitchen shelf.) Ms. Bidkar are you listening?… (plus d'informations)

This review is for the e-book version of 30 Days of Daal. First, I'd like to point out that the book is nicely illustrated, the recipes sound delicious, and the diversity of the recipes is wonderful. I really appreciate that the author has made the effort to assemble a variety of recipes that can provide some depth for someone interested in learning to prepare Daal or just to explore this aspect of Indian cuisine to explore.

The book itself is straightforward, essentially being a list of recipes without the extensive diversionary writing which can be found in many cookbooks. If you want a basic reference volume to keep in front of you while cooking rather than a coffee-table style book to peruse in your spare time, this book is ideally suited for that purpose, although as I mentioned, the images of the recipes in this volume are quite nice as well.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of shortcomings. This book contains the statement that "In 30 Days of Daal, Pragati shatters the myth that Indian cooking is complex needing a ton of ingredients." I didn't really find this to be the case. The book does seem to assume that the user has access to and knowledge of how to use a pressure cooker, and has a wok available. The availability of some of the ingredients in many communities is questionable. Asafoetida, hing, methi, fenugreek seeds (I thought Asafoetida was ground fenugreek seeds and methi is the actual grown plant... am I wrong?), panch phoran mix, etc. aren't really commonplace in many communities, at least in the United States. At least one recipe calls for ajwain seeds... I've used these before, but I had to mail order them and I'm not sure they were fresh when they arrived. That brings up another issue... the author encourages the reader to use some of the major importers of Indian food in the U.S., such as Deep Foods, Laxmi, and others. While I've used some of their products and enjoyed them immensely, my experience is that this can be expensive, though perhaps that's because I was purchasing prepared meals.

In the end, this is a very nice cookbook, but the usability of it for many people will be limited by the availability of ingredients. I do think that an adventurous cook won't be deterred and will simply figure out replacements for unavailable ingredients in order to enjoy the recipes to the fullest of their availability, but given that one of the primary claims of the author is that this book doesn't rely on rare ingredients and makes things easy, I have to subtract a couple of stars. A good effort nevertheless, and I hope the author continues to work on and produce appealing cookbooks that encourage people to explore Indian cuisine.… (plus d'informations)